By Editor
Miffed by what he described as “A natural marriage of flauras- (a palm tree and a tree entangled in a romantic embrace with a structure that looks like a human head on top”) recently discovered in the sleepy community of Ayegbaju Ekiti, the DG Bureau of Touurism Development Ekiti State, Amb. Wale Ojo-Lanre has hinted of plans to make the spectacular scenery another tourist site in Ekiti State.
He made the disclosure while responding to questions as a guest of a popular radio station on Friday monitored by our correspondent in Ado Ekiti.
According to him the object discovered in Ayegbaju defies the natural attributes of floras in terms of parasitic or saprophatic nature but purely romantic which makes it spectacular by all ramifications and another wonder of nature discovered in the state.
Speaking on the process to make the place a tourist site, the DG said
“It takes a process and we have commenced the process which begins with informing the Governor. After this, the Governor will give the directive on what to do, then we go ahead to talk to the family who owns the land and the process will commence fully”
Responding to the question on Ekiti Tourism Masterplan, Ojo-Lanre who assured Ekiti people of a well thought out tourism policy is underway said; “We have a Governor in this state who understands developmental process so the first assignment he gave us was that if you are planning tourism in Ekiti in a sustainable manner, there must be a policy and there must be Tourism Development Masterplan. I informed you today now that the policy is ready and it’s going to be launched very soon and Tourism Development Masterplan is in the pipeline. It states clearly policy surrounding tourism such as education tourism, religious tourism, cultural tourism, environmental tourism and cuisine tourism so that you’ll know that if you are coming to Ekiti State to package a tour, these are the safety valves or these are what and what you need to do and this policy would be inaugurated very soon.
“One can’t build something on nothing. The first thing you have to build when you are planning tourism in a State is to have a tourism policy first on which you are now going to build your Tourism Development Masterplan with all stakeholders involved” he noted.
Highlighting some of the gains recorded in the past one year where over 50 tourism events were held in Ekiti State, the DG said further; ” The Statistician-General of Ekiti State was in my office and she was able to tell us how all the events held last year brought a lot of goodwill to the state in terms of goodwill and economic gains to the people”
